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Erdogan lashes out at Netanyahu as tyrant, child murderer

'Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu a “tyrant” who kills Palestinian children, as a heated war of words between the two officials continues.

“Hey Netanyahu, behave yourself. You are a tyrant, you are a tyrant who massacred seven-year-old Palestinian children,” Erdogan told supporters in capital Ankara.

The remarks were a direct response to Netanyahu's attacks earlier in the day, who called the Turkish head of state a “dictator” and “a joke” who put journalists in jail.

The fiery exchanges began a day earlier, when Turkey denounced Netanyahu for his “blatant racism" against Arab Israelis after the rightist premier said the occupied Palestinian territories only belonged to the Jewish people and not all citizens.

“Turkey’s dictator Erdogan attacks Israel’s democracy while Turkish journalists and judges fill his prisons,” Netanyahu wrote in an Instagram post. “What a joke!”